Vijender wins gold, three Indian boxers qualify for Olympics

New Delhi, March 23 (IANS) Vijender clinched gold in the 75 kg category as three Indian boxers secured Olympic berths to round off their powerful show at the Asian Qualifiers in Astana, Kazakhstan, Sunday. Doha Asiad bronze medallist Vijender, who qualified for the Olympics after winning his semi-final bout here, won the gold medal, beating South Korean Cho Deok in the final Sunday. Indian boxers overall bagged one gold, two silvers and three bronze medals in the tournament.

Dinesh Kumar (81 kg) and Jitender Kumar (51 kg) were the other two boxers to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Dinesh (81 kg) also qualified for Olympics after reaching the finals, but lost the title clash 10-16 to Ghorbani Mehdi of Iran.

Jitender (51) qualified after settling for a bronze with a 13-6 win in the play-off match against Castro Godfrey of Philippines Sunday.

India could have earned another Olympics berth but Dilbag Singh (69kg) lost a close bout 11-16 to Turkmenistan’s Bashirov Aliasker to finish second in the category.

A couple of warnings for dangerous play undid Dilbag’s show as only the winner had the rights for an Olympic quota place in this category.

Manoj (64kg) and Pravin (91-plus kg) lost their semi-final bouts and were the other two bronze medallist for the country.

The total number of Indian boxers qualifying for the Olympics has gone up to five as A.L. Lakra (57kg) and Akhil Kumar (54kg) ensured their berths earlier.